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Survey Says eBay TRS Program Not Rewarding Great Sellers
 

We asked AuctionBytes readers what they thought of eBay's recent changes to search and the new Top Rated Seller (TRS) program. Part one of the survey results are published in Wednesday's newsletter.

AuctionBytes launched the survey on October 8 as sellers were still assessing the effect of the changes that had rolled out in the weeks prior. When asked how the recent launch of the TRS program affected their sales, 38% said they were unable to estimate the effect. Another 22% said their sales had not changed, 33% said their sales had decreased, and 7% said their sales had increased.

After analyzing the full data set of all respondents, we went back to look at results exclusively from sellers whose listings displayed the TRS badge. Interestingly, only a small number of TRS sellers said their sales had increased, and the majority said their sales had either remained unchanged or had actually decreased. A third were unable to measure the effect of the program on their sales.


It was also interesting to note that only 33% of TRS sellers believed the TRS program succeeded in accomplishing eBay's stated goal of recognizing and rewarding sellers who provide great buyer experiences. This compares to 57% of ALL respondents who said the TRS program failed to meet those goals.


Read Part 1 of the survey results in Wednesday's newsletter (link); Parts 2 and 3 will be published later this week.